Before there can be GIMP 3.0, there must be the development release versions that help developers implement new features while allowing users to test out those features. These versions provide us with a glimpse into all the new features coming to GIMP 3.0 and help us see how GIMP’s development is coming along.
You can download the latest GIMP 3.0 development release version, often referred to as the GIMP 3.0 Preview Version, via the Development Downloads page on the GIMP website. Keep in mind that these versions are unstable and are not suited for everyday work.
Below are all the videos Davies Media Design has released covering what’s new in every GIMP 3.0 release version. Enjoy!
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.8
GIMP 2.99.8 introduced new features like multi-layer Heal and Clone tool functionality, improvements to the “Paint Select Tool,” and support for new file formats. With this version also came the announcement of new GIMP “Nightlies” builds, or bleeding-edge development versions released every night.
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.10
GIMP 2.99.10 rolled out a brand-new Welcome Screen dialog that appears every time users start up GIMP for a new session. Plus, new UI improvements were made to features like “Layer Sets,” the layer lock icons, and the sliders located throughout GIMP. There were also announcements made regarding GIMP’s MAC OS development.
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.12
Making its way into the GIMP 2.99.12 development release version was the new Release Highlights feature that shows a quick animation highlighting the location of newly added features. Improvements were made to paintbrush resizing and mouse zooming. Plus, a new system theme was added along with a new checkerboard background and new support for “pinch” gestures on a tablet. Finally, this version saw the first introduction of CMYK support features, which I covered in a separate video (below).
GIMP 2.99.12 CMYK Features
Due to its high demand, I decided to make a dedicated video covering the new CMYK features introduced in GIMP 2.99.12. In this video, I cover the latest CMYK support offered in GIMP including the new soft proofing toggle, exporting images with a CMYK color profile, and displaying CMYK colors in GIMP’s tool colors.
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.14
GIMP 2.99.14 saw important changes and new features introduced to the upcoming GIMP 3.0 stable release version. In this version, the GIMP community announced a totally reworked Alignment tool to try to improve the User Experience. The “Outlined Text” feature was also introduced, which improves the process for adding a stroke to text (a much needed feature). This release also marked a major change regarding “floating selections,” which appear in legacy versions of GIMP when copying and pasting layers.
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.16
Major news was announced with the release of GIMP 2.99.16 – the “porting” of old code from GTK2 to GTK+3 was officially completed! New features were also introduced, like updates to the Text tool, alignment tool, and Fill and Stroke dialog, along with the introduction of the “Merge Menu and Title Bars” feature to make the UI look cleaner.
What’s New in GIMP 2.99.18
GIMP 2.99.18 launched the most highly-anticipated feature in GIMP’s development: non-destructive editing. With NDE, users can add filters and effects to their photos, then come back and tweak the settings of those effects at any time during their workflow. Plus, as a bonus, this feature introduced “Smart Guides” to GIMP, which intelligently align layers on the directly on the user’s canvas. These new features were a huge leap forward and showed that GIMP 3.0 may actually live up to the hype!
That’s all of the development versions for GIMP 3.0 that have been released thus far. Check back often to see if new versions have been released, or check out my other GIMP tutorials to learn more about how to use this awesome free photo editor.
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